A critical review of the bacteriology of human and rat leprosy / S.B. Wolbach and James A. Honeij.

  • Simeon Burt Wolbach
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A critical review of the bacteriology of human and rat leprosy / S.B. Wolbach and James A. Honeij. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The color of the colonies on the peptone glycerin blood serum medium is light yellow; the serum is not liquefied. Growth takes place in the water of condensation, which remains clear. The first generation would not grow at room temperature, but finally after six months, small colonies developed on glycerin gelatine. Growth on ordinary agar agar was very slow; potato and bouillon were absolutely unsuited. The colonies are described as grayish white, circular, thick in the middle, and thin at the periphery with serrated edges. The colonies tend to remain isolated for a consider- able time — eight to ten days; finally they coalesce. The morphology is given as thin, straight or bent, and curved ‘rods of different lengths, one to five or six long. The majority of the bacilli have terminal swellings, occupying one-third of the total length of the bacillus. The smallest bacilli are coccoid in appearance, while the largest reach double the average length and are apparently two bacilli joined. These long forms have club swellings at both ends. In addition to the club endings, the bacilli contain clear spaces. The organism is non-motile. The bacilli resist decolorization with alcohol after staining with aniline water fuchsin or gentian violet. This method of staining demonstrates a capsular substance about some of the organisms. This material, which is said not to be a true capsule, decolorizes when treated by the Koch-Ehrlich staining method. After decolorization with alcohol or treat- ment with the Koch-Ehrlich staining method, nearly all the bacilli show one to four clear spaces. The author compared the staining reaction of his cultures with cultures of tubercle bacilli, and could find no absolute difference in the results. A large number of guinea-pigs, rabbits, and mice were inoculated subcutaneously, intravenously, intraperitoneally and into the anterior eye-chamber, with entirely negative results. A number of controversial articles, regarding this publication were written by Babes and Baumgarten. In Bordoni-Uffreduzzi’s? final reply he contributes nothing to the above description of the bacillus isolated by him.
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